Javelin, the West Coast’s first C&C 30, takes a bullet for the Sportboat class in the final race of the CYC Midwinters to finish the regatta in 2nd place.
By Jenn Virškus for Quantum Sail Design Group

The San Francisco Bay’s first C&C 30 made its racing debut at the Corinthian Yacht Club Midwinters held January 17­–18 and February 21–22. In its first race, with Sail California’s Patrick Nolan driving and Quantum’s Jeff Thorpe doing tactics, Javelin finished third in corrected time to Paul Recktenwald’s J/88 Lazy Dawg and David Rasmussen’s Synergy 1000 Sapphire in the sportboat class.

Fast-forward to this weekend, and Javelin, driven by Quantum’s Patrick Whitmarsh, won the final race on Sunday in heavy air to secure second place in the regatta behind Lazy Dawg. Trig Liljestrand’s J/90 Ragtime was 3rd in the class.

Saturday morning didn’t look too promising, but after a one-hour postponement an early-season westerly filled in delivering consistent winds in the high teens. Javelin was able to hang close with the Soto 30 Gentoo most of the way around the course. They lost that race by overstanding the leeward layline both times. Picking up a burlap bag on the rudder somewhere in the middle of the race didn’t help. “In races one and three, we made tactical mistakes because our head was so far in the boat—we sacrificed some of our tactics trying to figure out the boat,” said Thorpe.

David Schumann, owner of the J/70 Bottle Rocket (another Quantum-powered boat), was at the helm of Javelin on Saturday. “Coming from a J/70, I was wondering how much bigger this boat would feel, but it was actually really responsive and I felt confident on all points of sail,” said Schumann. “The boat feels stable; it is a pretty stiff platform. Before the bag, it was pretty close racing and that was a lot of fun.”

By all accounts, the C&C 30 is extremely well-balanced downwind, especially in the breeze, and it’s easy to get up on a plane. “It doesn’t seem like you have to put the bow up too much to get the boat on the step in the right conditions,” said Thorpe. “We were sailing through the lee of the big boats in dirty air, it was just amazing.” It also has a really high righting moment that allows for an extra-big spinnaker that gets the boat moving. Sailed to its limit, it could reach 20 knots downwind.

“For people who are looking for the next step in a high performance boat, this would be a good one, especially given that it’s only 30 feet. The boat has a great grand prix set-up and controls, and the performance is great. It really lit up going downwind, and that was a lot of fun,” said Schumann.

Upwind, however, is where the boat has exceeded all expectations. The C&C 30 features a really powerful hull, with a wide, powerful set up in the back. Its deep keel and modern bulb contribute to the boat marching upwind. “With the wind blowing 16 to 22, we were really able to see the true character of this boat,” said Thorpe. Throughout the regatta, Thorpe said the crew figured out that there is a huge upwind speed advantage to moving the crew weigh aft.

“The boat is very new, so we’re slowly learning the rig set up and the loads. Saturday we sailed the boat a little too high. Sunday we opened everything up and sailed about three-quarters of a knot faster upwind with a tighter rig,” said Thorpe.

“We’ve sailed the boat with six and seven crew, but seven is the real number,” said Norman Davant of Sail California. The seventh crewmember is key for moving the weigh aft upwind, as well as working the running backstays.

“We were aggressively trimming the running backstays in the puffs on Sunday,” said Whitmarsh. “You have to be aggressive with that on the boats that don’t have a permanent backstay. You put on a lot of turns when the puffs come on and then you have to ease really aggressively in the lulls. There’s a lot of work on the runners, especially when it’s puffy.”

“Race four was a culmination of learning the boat enough over the three days, having the right conditions, and not making any mistakes tactically. We realized the potential of how great this boat is,” Thorpe said of the win.

The C&C 30 is a true sportboat: you’re not going to be taking it on a cruise around the bay with your family. You need a few good people who really know what they’re doing to sail it. That said, the boat doesn’t require a huge sail inventory. It is currently being sailed with five sails: one main, a light to medium air jib, a heavy air jib, a flat, light-air kite and an all-around AP kite for medium to heavy breeze.

Another nice feature is the detachable bow pole. “It’s set up similarly to an 18-foot skiff,” said Whitmarsh. “The solid, fixed bow pole keeps the kite projected in front of the boat, but at the dock, all you have to do is undo the bob stay and you can take the pole off, allowing you to keep the boat in a slip.”

The C&C 30 has often been compared to the TP 52, but with the nimbleness and maneuverability of a small sportboat, making it an excellent crossover boat. “It’s phenomenal how similar it is to the big boats in terms of how it responds and its upwind speed,” said Davant.

According to Davant, the market for the C&C 30 is really that of the Farr 280—but that is a true buoy racing boat. “The C&C 30 is a challenging, technical boat to sail, but it’s also a boat that you can take into some big breeze off shore—I’m confident of that now,” he added.

“I’d take it to Monterey in a heartbeat,” Davant said. “But it would be awesome heading west. Put four people on it and you’d have the ride of your life to Hawaii.”

Kudos to the Quantum-powered J/120 Peregrine taking the PHRF 2 class. “I let the crew race without me. I'm terrifically proud of how they’ve handled the boat,” said owner David Halliwill.

“Our speed was good through the CYC series and I attribute much of it to the rig tune and the crewing,” added Mike O'Callaghan who was on Peregrine for the regatta. “The boat is well-prepared and everything works. Our sails for this series were from 2011 and have seen a lot of racing since, but they still look very good, especially the 130% jib.”

Quantum sails got Charles James’s Roxanne to the top spot in the J/105 class, as well as the Hanse 370 Min Flicka, owned by Julle Le’Vickie in the Non-Spinnaker 1 class.

“We were anticipating wind for both days, so we went tight on the rig, and I think that helped us,” said Elliot James, who was doing bow on Min Flicka both days. “Sunday was a real one-design race. We were trading places down the first leg to Blackhaller with Yellowfin and Nimbus. We managed to get in front ahead just before the mark, and led upwind and continued to lead round the second mark. Halfway down the second third leg, we had an exciting moment when we blew up the tack line block. We had to douse the kite, get the jib out, fix the broken block, and get the kite back up with the fleet bearing down on us. Somehow we managed to do it and held on for the win.”

“This weekend was quite interesting. There were a few broaches, a few mistakes, and a few calls that were too close, but we managed to prevail with two seconds to spare,” said Le’Vickie. “It was lots of fun and a well-run regatta. Our Quantum sails worked well, so we’re quite happy!”

Other Quantum boats in the top three include Tim Russell’s J/80 Pain Killer in 3rd in PHRF 3; Ron Kell was 3rd in the Express 27 class with his boat Abigail Morgan; and Ian Matthew’s C&C 29 Siento El Viento was in 3rd in PHRF 5. Click here for complete results.

]]>https://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/cc-30-makes-san-francisco-debut-at-corinthian-midwinters/feed/0Quantum Teams Kick Off NOOD with Wins in Melges 24, J/24, and J/70https://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/quantum-teams-kick-off-nood-with-wins-in-melges-24-j24-and-j70/
https://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/quantum-teams-kick-off-nood-with-wins-in-melges-24-j24-and-j70/#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 20:32:57 +0000http://www.quantumsails.com/news/?p=4492Continue reading →]]>
Quantum teams enjoyed a great kick-off to the 2015 Helly Hansen NOOD Regattas this past weekend with excellent results. Quantum-powered boats finished first in J/70, J/24, and Melges 24 with second place finishes in Melges 24 and Lightning.

Dominating their divisions, Marty Kullman on New Wave and Richard Reid on Zingara won by 15- and 9-point margins. In the J/70 class, Kullman never finished lower than fourth place, including four individual race wins, giving him the overall win with 27 points. On his Melges 24, Reid followed suit with only one race out of the top three and five first-place finishes. His 18-point total was just nine points ahead of fellow Quantum sailor Rob Britts on Hot Mess, whose three first place finishes and three second place finishes were enough to secure second place.

It was a much closer race in the J/24 fleet, where Travis Odenbach finished in the top three seven times, including three wins. He started strong and was able to hold off the competition, taking first place by three points.

It was a similar scene in the Lightning class, where Allan Terhune, Jr. sailed on Dazzler. His strong and consistent sailing put him in the top three for all but one race, finishing with an incredible 19 points and a second place spot on the podium.

]]>https://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/quantum-teams-kick-off-nood-with-wins-in-melges-24-j24-and-j70/feed/0Quantum-powered Boats Finish 1-2 at Melges 20 Winter Serieshttps://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/quantum-powered-boats-finish-1-2-at-melges-20-winter-series/
https://www.quantumsails.com/news/index.php/2015/02/quantum-powered-boats-finish-1-2-at-melges-20-winter-series/#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 17:32:45 +0000http://www.quantumsails.com/news/?p=4490Continue reading →]]>
With two days of stellar racing conditions, two Quantum-powered teams topped the fleet at the second round of the Audi Melges 20 Miami Winter Series, Feb. 6-8 at Coconut Grove in Miami, Florida. Big winds and big shifts made for exciting racing with lots of lead changes throughout the event.

Alessandro Rombelli and Terry Hutchinson on STIG sailed well with six top-ten finishes in eight races, including one race win. But it wasn’t enough to hold off Michael Kiss and Mike Buckley on Bacio, whose consistent sailing and four finishes in the top three were enough to give them first place among the 37-boat fleet.

I am a mainsail trimmer and my skipper and I are always arguing about de-powering. Which should I be using, the traveler or the mainsheet?

The simple answer, my child, is both.

The traveler has two functions. It controls the boom's angle to the wind and it steers the boat, controlling helm and heeling in puffs and lulls. Set the twist with the mainsheet then use the traveler to position the boom on the centerline for maximum power and pointing as long as helm and heeling are under control. As the breeze builds and mainsheet tension increases, the traveler will gradually be dropped to keep the boom on the centerline. In medium conditions, the role of the traveler will expand to include control of helm. As the boat heels too far and generates weather helm, drop the traveler to de-power the boat. The position of the boom, relative to the centerline, will become irrelevant. In medium air, play the traveler aggressively to maintain the correct amount of helm. Dump the traveler down quickly at the onset of a puff, but then be ready to pull it right back up as the initial power of the puff dissipates and turns into forward speed instead of heel. If you leave it down too long you will miss the opportunity to point once accelerated. In medium air, the range will be wide, from the boom on centerline to all the way down.

Think of the traveler as the “fine tune” power control device. As long as the changes in velocity are not to rapid and too great, it will keep the boat on its feet (and stop the helmsperson’s whining). The beauty of using the traveler is that mainsail twist (controlled by the mainsheet), which is vital to both speed and pointing, does not change, only the total amount of power.

Once the velocity has increased to the point that the traveler alone will not keep the boat upright, its time to use the big stick and shift over to the mainsheet. Also, in very puffy conditions when velocity and direction are changing rapidly, the sheet can be a better tool to control power. This is a technique called “vang sheeting,” because the vang takes over the job of pulling down on the boom and controlling twist. The mainsheet moves the boom in an out-to-luff or fill the sail as necessary. Typically the traveler is pulled part of the way back up towards the centerline to keep the bottom of the mainsail working.

The mainsheet is the “gross trim” adjustment for the overall amount of power.

The type of boat and its performance characteristics also influence the choice. On fractional rigged boats with large mainsails (particularly when the boat is on the lighter side), the mainsheet is played somewhat more aggressively and the traveler is usually kept closer to centerline. The bigger sail makes the boatspeed particularly sensitive to small changes in mainsheet tension. The right amount of twist is key.

Of course, the sophisticated mainsail trimmer continually makes adjustments to both traverler and mainsheet based not just on the overall amount of power, but issues like boat speed, waves, and even tactical situation. For example, the uber trimmer may choose to ease the mainsheet slightly and drop the traveler to depower if the boat is sailing slower than targets or about to hit a set of waves. Or, if you are lifted or close to fetching the weather mark, it may pay to ease the mainsheet and lower the traveler more aggressively to turn a puff into speed instead of height.

To paraphrase rather badly from an ancient Zen saying, as in all things, the correct answer certainly lies in the middle way.

The Quantum Team is at Your Service
Farr 40 Midwinter Championship
San Diego March 4 – 7, 2015

Quantum Sails is pleased to offer service and support to all teams racing in the Farr 40 Midwinter Championship. If you require sail repair services before or during the event, Quantum has you covered with overnight repair and convenient pick-up and drop-off onsite. Before, during, or after the regatta, don’t hesitate to contact a member of the Quantum team if there is anything we can do for you.

Designed using Quantum’s IQ technology® and validated through on-the-water testing, we are excited to introduce our newest sail for the J/22. The new V10 mainsail has more depth in the top third and a bit more luff curve for more power in light air. With our spring promotion, now is a great time to update your inventory! For more details, click here.

From now until March 31, Quantum is offering a 10% discount on all J/22 sails. Free delivery available to Jackson Yacht Club for the 2015 Midwinters. Call your local rep or a Quantum J/22 expert (contact info below).

Midwinter Support Seminars

Terry Flynn will be running clinics at the Jackson Yacht Club for Midwinters. The clinics will include rig tune, sail trim, and boat handling, and are open to everyone. Terry is planning to spend as much time on the water as possible. “We hope some of the out-of-town sailors will be arriving early to take advantage of this and work off some of the rust before racing begins,” said Terry. He will also be available to meet individually with owners to work on areas of improvement. For more information or to arrange a time, please contact Terry at tflynn@quantumsails.com or 713-906-5497.

QUANTUM J/22 Team

The Quantum One Design team has grown to include the most knowledgeable and accomplished sailors and sailmakers in the J/22 class. Allan Terhune, Terry Flynn, Nick Turney, and Scott Nixon have over 100+ years of combined experience in the class, as well as a long history of helping customers get the most out of their boats and sails. Let us know what we can do to support your program.

I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to sail with a George Gamble and his J/111 team from Pensacola, FL on My Sharona at this year's Quantum Key West Race Week. This was the first KWRW where the J/111's had a one design start; it was also the first J/111 Midwinter Championship. This event, along with the looming J/111 World Championships in Newport, RI, set the stage for a great start to 2015 for this exciting class.

This was my first J/111 regatta so I was the rookie on board. George Gamble selected a great, fun team from the Pensacola YC including his teenage son Kyle who was our man in the middle who kept the team motivated on the rail all week. The My Sharona team has put a lot of miles on their boat the past few years including a few races along the Gulf Coast of Florida and a race all the way to Mexico. They have also done a lot of local PHRF racing and even drove the boat out to the Great Lakes the last two years for the J/111 North Americans. When George decided to get me on board we knew a weakness would be time in the boat together so we set a goal of trying to get as much quality practice time in as possible in preparation for the Worlds in early June.

Doing the Pre-Regatta Homework

Working with the great team at Quantum Sails, my pre-regatta homework was not too hard. I started with our sail designer Kerry Klingler, who has done all of our J/111 sail designs that have won the last two North Americans. We discussed the standard class inventory and suggested wind ranges for the class sails. George ordered a new light jib and A1.5 light spinnaker for the event.

After ordering the sails, I spoke with Quantum's J/111 speed doctor Wally Cross (two-time NA Champ and European Champ in the J/111). He walked me through the rig set up, rake numbers, pre bend, mast butt locations and the full Quantum tuning guide for our class sails. We felt we had a grasp on the setup but needed a way to confirm this in KW. Who better to talk with than the winner of Key West last year!

I called Nick Turney who does tactics and helps run the great Spaceman Spiff programs. He was a wealth of information on sailing the boat. Nick discussed the importance of sailing the J/111 to targets upwind and downwind and to really keep an eye on the target TWA off the breeze. Nick runs Quantum Cleveland, a recent addition to the Quantum network, so both of us were new to the Quantum J/111 sail program and setup. We decided the best way to get up to speed was to team up and train together before racing started, and to also tune up each morning on race day to make sure we felt fast before the start.

Practicing Like You Race
This homework really paid off for our teams during the week. We trained very hard for three full days before racing started on Monday. I don't think I was too popular with our team the first few days as we spent a solid six hours on the water each practice day! We would leave the dock each morning with our training partner and do a long, downwind tune followed by a long, upwind tune. At times we would stop and chat on the VHF to make sure the slower boat could adjust settings to match the faster boat.

The teams hiked hard and practiced like we were racing. After tuning, Spaceman's coach boat would run some practice starts and shore races where other J/111's would jump on with us. This gave us great, real-time racing situations to work on together as a team. Starting, close leebows, ducks and layline positioning were just some of the maneuvers we were forced to perfect. All of the J/111's would head in for a late afternoon cocktail after the short races but I made the unpopular decision to stay on the water "just a little while longer!"

Perfecting Maneuvers with Hot Laps
I introduced our team to hot laps, which are simple windward leeward laps where the marks are very close together so you just have time to set the spinnaker, gybe and then take it down before the leeward rounding sends you back around again. Our first few laps did not go very well as they rarely do! Everyone was tired and struggling to find their role individually for all these quick maneuvers. But after pushing hard and digging deep our team started to gel. We did three days of hard training, but the sweat and bruises were all worth it. After the training sessions we headed into the regatta with the confidence to pull off any maneuver required. The credit has to go to the team on board as everyone embraced the long, hard practice sessions and improved a massive amount in a very short time.

Heading out for race day one, our goals were to be safe and stay in the top four of each race. George and our bowman Derrick Riddle did a fantastic job of getting us off the line and we were able to sail each race the way we wanted. The week was fairly light so we were extremely fast with our new Quantum class light jib that we used all but the last day, which was over 15 knots.

Using Crew Weight to Help Steer the Boat
We also had great speed off the wind with the new A1.5 class spinnaker that we used in 11 knots and under. With clean starts and good speed, we were able to just stay ahead of the clumps of boats to make good decisions on which side to protect upwind. George focused solely on driving the boat at target speed and angle and the crew constantly moved their weight to keep us at the target heel angle upwind and downwind. This made my job easier as we tried to sail by ourselves in clear air and toward the next expected shift. This strategy worked well all week as we only had two races out of the top two and were able to win five of the ten races. The class was tight at each rounding, so having good sets, gybes and spinnaker drops perfected by our team during training really helped us stay out of trouble all week and kept the pressure on the boats around us.

As a team, we worked really hard all week to focus on our own individual jobs and come together as a group. It was great to see the team get better each day and come away from this regatta with a ton of knowledge to build on as we head to the next events in preparation for the Worlds this summer. I was very impressed with our team all week as they used two GoPros to record our races. They religiously watched them each night at our dinner/ debriefs to implement ways on improving their onboard roles.

Top Lessons Learned
Here are the top five things we learned in Key West about sailing the J/111 in a tight, one design fleet:

1. The boats take a while to build speed, so hitting the line at full speed and target angle are key.

2. Don't be afraid to inhaul the jib off the line to hold a lane or sail in a slightly higher mode, especially in light winds under 15 TWS with the light jib. On the flip side, don't hesitate to ease the inhauler when you want to sail fast or in bow-down mode for tactical reasons.

3. Having the crew hike hard upwind on the rail allows the trimmers to keep the leeches tight and keep power in the boat longer. Hike hard out of tacks and off the starting line to hit target speed faster.

4. Downwind, the stock class polars published by J/Boats are very good! We sailed to them all week with regards to target boat speed and target true wind angle.

5. Off the wind, use crew weight to help steer the boat, especially in over 11 knots with the Quantum A2 runner up. Hike the boat to windward to bear off and weight to leeward the helmsman head up. This helps minimize rudder movement so you can remain fast.

Thanks again to George and the My Sharona team for an outstanding attitude and effort in Key West. Also special thanks to Nick Turney on Spaceman Spiff and Wally Cross on Utah for sharing J/111 tips and tuning with us on the water. The Quantum sails and set up were very fast and easy to do. Q teams were 1,2,3 and 4! We all improved each day and had fun on shore sharing war stories at the tent and on Duvall Street. We are really looking forward to the next J/111 one design start this spring at Charleston Race Week. Hope to see you on the water soon.–Scott Nixon

Quantum Key West was the host of the J/70 Midwinter Championship, which provided the class with an awesome venue for a top-rate event. We were so fortunate this year to have some of the best weather I have ever experienced, as well as some top-notch racing in a variety of conditions.

The winner this year was Carlo Alberini and his team from Italy on the Calvi Network. They are the reigning European Champs and I was able to catch up with Carlo to get some of his impressions on Key West and the J/70 class.

Carlo, Congrats on your win! How long have you been racing the J70? Thanks for the compliments but the big credit goes to Branko and crew. We started sailing in March 2014.

How did you approach training for this event? Our approach was to study the difference with the USA fleet, we especially concentrated on studying the different rig.

What are the differences in racing fleets in the US from racing fleets in Europe? The level of the USA fleet is higher than Europeans because they started sailing two-three years ago.

What was your daily plan once you left the dock? We start every day with zero tuning and before arriving on the race field, we sail with the other competitors, changing the tuning according the sea and wind conditions.

The fleet sets up very close to the line, making starting difficult. How did you approach the starts? Branko (Brcin, Tactician) placed us in a perfect area of the start line every time and as you know, is not easy to stay there perfectly any time because the other competitors are very good. On average, we went where we wanted.

With so many races in a regatta, it is difficult to be consistent. Did you make any decisions on regatta/race management to reduce risk for the entire event? For me, is more important to do a lot of good placing rather than win a single race; it is the final result that matters.

Downwind – how do you decide when to plane and when to sail low? The edge is around 15th knots.

What weight are you sailing at? Too heavy right now (350kg); we are more heavy than last year by 20 kilos; it’s obligatory to reduce it to around 325kgs.

What did you think of Key West? It was a great venue, with great competition; we cannot wait to sail again in Miami.

One of the highlights of the week was the panel discussion on Tuesday Night. One of the strong things about the J/70 class is that everyone is willing to share and help each other out and grow the sport. There were also many opportunities to learn from class experts as well as great coaches Ed Adams and Ed Baird who shared their knowledge throughout the week.

I was fortunate to sail with Bob Hughes on Heartbreaker for the week. Looking back, here are a few things that I took away from the event.

We started out the week with light to moderate air. This put a premium on weight placement in the boat and sail trim. As the breeze went up and down it was critical to adjust the sheets to keep the boat tracking through the chop and to keep the boat at the proper heel angle to stay powered up. If you got too flat, the boat would stall; if you were too heeled, you would slide. It took a lot of effort to keep it constant, but if you did, there were high rewards.

Windy upwind: It felt much faster to sit with the weight a little bit aft to get the bow up over the waves.

Downwind the last day, there were big gains to be made in the big breeze if you had space to let the boat rip. If you got caught in traffic and didn’t have the ability to steer where you wanted and keep the boat on a plane, you would lose out to the boats that had their own water.

Lastly, it was easy to see some boats had good days and some bad; the key to long events is being able to stay even and always keep working for points. The boats that were good at treating the event like the marathon that KWRW is, did the best.

As head of the J/Boat Division for Quantum Sails, my perspective and role at Quantum Key West Race Week was not only that of tactician and trimmer on the J/88 Deviation, but also making sure all our customers and sails in the J/111 and J/88 classes performed well. My goal at regattas is always to help our clients get up to speed in any way possible and facilitate the flow of information between successful boats. J/Boats are in a performance class all their own and in the J/Boat Division our focus is on the requirements of these boats while providing owners with all the support and information they need for success.

This concentration is evident in the J/111 where our customers have had great success since the inception of the boat. I want to acknowledge Gary Leduc and Wally Cross who have both contributed a lot over the years to the development of the J/111 sails and the tuning guide. It is very rewarding to work with these professionals who are key in evaluating sails, learning the nuances of the boat, and striving to make the best sails possible. This team approach to sail development has led to some very fast sail inventories.

For the J/88 class, Key West is the second largest regional regatta for a new boat. This makes for some unknowns in regards to how fast your sails and boat are compared to the competition. For our crew on Deviation the goals were simple. First, get to the regatta early, set up the boat, work on slight boat improvements, and go sailing. Second, practice, try to line up with the competition, and see how fast we were.

One of our advantages on Deviation was the season of sailing we had under our belt. The disadvantage was the fact our sails were one season old. Last year, I raced with owner Iris Vogel at Block Island Race Week and as a result, instituted some sail development improvements now part of our current products. Rob Butler on Touch2Play benefited from these improvements in his newly purchased sails. To overcome this, Deviation’s sails were brought into the loft for service and were adjusted to current designs wherever possible. The biggest change was made to the A2 Asymmetrical, where the head of the sail was replaced. This adjustment was made to increase twist in the sail and make the head slightly deeper.

During the week, Touch2Play and Deviation proved to be the fastest J/88s out there. We worked with daily debriefs on what we thought were fast combinations. Details were exchanged on rig settings, inhaul amount, and sheet tension. Overall, the boats proved to be very close in speed. An important thing we learned was that the main could be sheeted with the boom above centerline in the lighter winds. Our tuning guide (available here) is pretty accurate, and the headstay length seemed to work well.

In light winds we were between 1.5 and 2 steps below base setting. In the windy conditions we were two steps up. In the last few races we did not realize that our shims fell out of the rudder pintles and two bolts backed out, causing trouble after the last race. I am sure we were slowed down the last day because of this. Other owners should check their pintles and bolts to insure they are properly installed and working well.

In the end, Touch2Play and Deviation tied with 19 points, with Touch2Play winning on the tie-breaker. The next closest boat had 34 points. Between the two boats, they won 9 of the 10 races. From where I sit, that’s nearly a perfect ending!